THE first Norwich Indoor Rowing Championships were held at the Carrefour Health and Fitness Centre in Norwich, and was well supported on Sunday in spite of coinciding with the World Cup final!

The late start of the event allowed many competitors to watch the match and still arrive in time for their races.

World champion Anna Bailey of Hanley Swan, a member of the Evesham-based Old Wrecks Indoor Rowing Club, took first again in the Women's 50-59 Heavyweight category in a comfortable time of seven minutes 15.6 seconds, almost five seconds faster than at this point in the season last year, and recording the fastest Women's time of the day at the event.

A number of Old Wrecks will be taking part in Evesham's River Festival next Saturday (July 13).

One of the events is the 'Golden Mile' on the indoor rower in aid of Sport Relief, which is being organised by Evesham Rowing Club. The mile is an unusual distance, being 1609 metres, and has been specially introduced this year for Comic Relief's Sport Relief initiative, providing opportunities for some new World Records to be set.

On that day, there will be five hours of television on BBC covering many sporting events country-wide.

Anyone is welcome to take part in the Golden Mile, for an entry fee of £5.00, and should contact Robin Walker at the Evesham club or email to robinwalker@ntlworld. com.

The 'dry' rowers are looking forward to taking on the 'wet' rowers!